Single File, ‘Common Struggles’ (Reprise)

You can’t throw a rock without hitting a band of ambitious young Warped Tour–weaned pop-punks these days, but there’s something immediately likable about this Colorado bunch, led by cheeky frontman Sloan Anderson. It’s probably the mix of credible influences — Jimmy Eat World, the Get Up Kids — and unabashedly big, sticky choruses about love. There’s no sense in trying to clutter up universal sentiment (“I’m sad about girls,” goes the ironically cheery “Mannequin Loveseat”) with multiple metaphors; it’s better to let nature take over, allow your body to bounce, and sing blithely along.

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Alessandro Cortini tends to surround himself with darkness. The Italian producer is most infamous as a torturer of modular synths and other bleak electronics for Los Angeles’ most famous industrial-goths, Nine Inch Nails. His previous solo LP, Sonno, slinked out on Prurient’s Hospital Productions — a bastion of the crepuscular, if there ever was one. And… More »